Maíra Fernandes de Melo

Maíra Fernandes de Melo, Engaged Serenity of the Heart (pronouns she/her), is a Brazilian journalist, scholar, poet, and activist. Born in the lands of Tupinambás, Rio de Janeiro, surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains of Atlantic Forest, she has also lived in Argentina, land of Guaraníes–the dense stream of Paraná River embracing her body. She has Indigenous (Potiguara and Puri) and European (Portuguese and Spanish) human ancestors, and is a daughter of Oxóssi, Orisha of the forests in Brazilian Candomblé.